Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1887-09-15
WOMEN IN THE COLORADO MINES
Sketch OF a typo Found on . Buck.
board Wagon mt Idaho Springs.

| III Soioia uo hihcS, says u IcltcE ITOL
Idaho Springs to The 81. Louis Globe
Democrat. ! can hardly believe We
that representatives of the fair sex ca
summon courage enough to participate
in any way in the toll Of the thousand
who, gnome like, burrow in these
mountains. 1t seems strange and i'm
possible to link their names with TIT
difficult and dangerous tasks Of the
delivers whose hard hands are certainly
adding to the worlds wealth. Still i
must be fact, for fat fairy. who sa
beside me in tho blackboard Wagon
that carries passengers from Contra
City to this resort. told me so, and moi
only said that the members Of her sex
took hand in developing the resources
of the Centennial state. but pointed ou
a mine on Quartz hill where she had &C
tually poured perspiration and stretched
her sinews in an honest effort to make
fortune. The fairy's breath would
have set fire to a meetin e house; it was
as hot as the neck of a black bottle in &
dago saloon on the st. Louis levee
Her nose was red and so was her chin.
The glow suggested that possibly the
lady had been rubbing the edge Of her
face against the bunghole of barrel
of coffin varnish. She was as round as
a circus ring. and bore down on her
side OF the wagon in q way that threat
ened the destruction of the springs.
Her name was Prudence. That much
of it she volunteered herself The dri.
yer, who had known her for years, said
he couldn't keep track of all the other
names she had at different times tackled
on to the Prudence; but one of her
husbands was Moore. She wore a
blue flannel dress. carried a reticule on
her arm, and had some kind of chip
hat, with blue ribbons and red berries
on it. screwed down over her left eye.
There above s were our mine was. "
she said, holding to the wriggling
wagon with one hand and with the
other pointing up the hill; otis .theer
yet too, sir. The Robson we called
it. I was after my frs hoosban' tc
jump it, but he wooedn't so me an my
secon' hoosba' VIC jumpt it. You see,
sir. it was lynn theer an no work
he'd bin done on it for some time so
l thought as how we might as we'll a
jump IL as to have some stranger came
long an do it. So mo an my secon'
hoosban' jumpit it Yes, an we workit
it, too, sir. We rim down a shat fifty
feet ar more, sir, an we rim tunnel a
hun'ert feet, and workit at the win'lass
adj cobbed the dirt an wheelit out to
the dump. I'm an InglIsh woman, sir.
| be; an we Inglish women, you know.
air useit TO work"
Are there any other women in these
parts who work in that way9" asked.
'Oh, yes, sir" she answered. "Sev'r'l
O. thin. There's plenty women help
their hoosban's, or they cob the dirt.
or pushes out tho barrows. But there /
no women as has jumpit a mine like
me. I'd jumpit it long afoor l did
only for my frs hoosba'."
What's the mine doing nowP"
"Nothin' sir. My secon' hoosban'
got tired o it an when he skippet
out"
"Did he die?"
mo he skippet-went were the wood
burn twirneth, you know; we'll wen he
skippet got two fellows to work it an
l don't know what they're a dom OF
with it or if they're doin' anythin'."
Prudence is a daisy, and if this meets
her eye don't think l should care to
once get within reaching distance of
her red right arm. She has been in
these gulches for twelve rears, and. ac-
to her own statement, she and
her first husband at one time owned
one-half of Russellville, small post
office town in Russell gulch. between
Central and the Springs. There was
another lime when she said she could
have bought the entire gulch for 5000;
but, as in the case of the man without
the pair of boots, in the average old in
habtants "Reminiscences, she didn't
have the 5000. She had a cousin in
every cabin for miles around, and
couldn't meet man in the road whose
front name, cut down to its handiest
length, she hadn't at the end of her
tongue, and he always turned out to be
somebody who had .'boarded wi WEI
the 1--WE" being herself and her "firs
hoosban'." She had, it appears, kept
a clearinghouse in the gu!ch, when
times were flusher than they are now.
and had accumulated money enough to
put up frame hotel and saloon
which is now known as the Half way
house. She lost this through mort.
gage. and when the stage passed there
she wanted Elias, the driver, to stop
and let her out; but Elias kept right
o'ous5' 90 hO hio" thdt uuclCo "Oulu
belle her name, and 60 in and clean out
the whole ranch if he allowed her to
disembark. Passing the Russellville
graveyard-a desolate little spot of
ground with three by six foot spaces.
presumably inclosing graves. protected
by wooden fences that looked like ex-
tree-boxes.- features
broke into an expression of grief her
face became the color of a boiled lob
ster. and her eyes poured out tears,
every drop the size of a ten-carat
pearl. Two of her children were lying
among those graves and it was for
them she wept-wept as If storm of
sorrow had not cleared her sky for
years. l was touched by the sight
S"ch a display of emotion l did not
think this big. rough. hard armed.
reckless-tOngued, red-faced English
woman capable of; but soft heart was
revealed in her swollen eyes, and sy nj
pathized with her. Her "frs hoos-
ban" was buried on Bald mountain,
but she didn't seem to care SO much
about him. She left the stage near the
Russellville postotlice. and. pointing to
an laa